The day after the most interesting day in American presidential history since Truman upset Dewey, we unexpectedly saw one of the brightest days in American history follow it. Granted–there were some protests in some cities protesting New York Democrat Donald Trump’s election to the White House. But those were insignificant and not representative of America from coast to coast with people who go to work, have a mortgage, and pay their own health care premiums.
What inspired me first was Hillary Clinton’s remarkably gracious concession speech. It was incredible and set the tone for a truly remarkable day in America. Hillary Clinton let her guard down with a speech for the ages as she spoke firstly as an American while imploring this country to accept the election results and come together as a country. It was a beautiful speech, and quite frankly, it’s unfortunate Hillary Clinton didn’t show more of this side of herself during the campaign.
Not long after Clinton, Barack Obama made an equally gracious speech directed towards President Elect Trump making it clear a dignified transition of power in America will occur. It was an equally classy speech.
For his part, New York Democrat Donald Trump then contacted both Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi and urged them to all work together in the coming days. Which if you really think about it will probably happen because as a New York Democrat, Donald Trump as a New York entrepreneur already has a working relationship with both of them as his own lobbyist and has made political contributions to both of them previously.
House Majority Leader Paul Ryan, a Republican, then threw out the olive branch to New York Democrat Donald Trump after a very contentious campaign in which they didn’t speak to one another for the most part. Same type of comments came from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, another Republican, who like Ryan showed immense distaste for President Elect Trump during the campaign.
What a lovefest… which makes all of us wonder why we had to watch the previous sixteen months of bullshit. Trump is a New York Democrat and if he could just possibly keep his Billy Bush inner self to himself and Rudy Giulani, there’s actually a chance this might possibly work and some things might get done.
Amidst all the distress in the wee hours of election night as the markets seemed on the edge of imploding downward, lo and behold, Clinton, Obama, Trump, Ryan, and McConnell all acted as Americans and hopefully gave us an overly optimistic glance at what government could possibly look like in this country with Trump (New York Democrat), McConnell (Kentucky conservative) Paul Ryan (Wisconsin conservative), Chuck Schumer (New York progressive), and Nancy Pelosi (California progressive).
Instead of the Dow tanking as it appeared it might do, the exact opposite occurred on Thursday as it closed at an all-time high for the simple reason this wasn’t completely Brexit II. But more of a growing frustration that parts of America are having trouble with the Technology Revolution combined with the recent Obamacare premium increases. Perhaps, most revealing in this election is Pennslyvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin all went for a New York Democrat running as the Republican nominee. If you take away those three states, the electoral map basically played out much like it did in 2012 when Obama defeated Romney. So it’s not like there’s this huge national mandate when you consider Clinton won the overall popular vote.
Other than the repeal of Obamacare, I didn’t view a national mandate of any kind, but more of just frustration from angry white people with Washington for never getting anything done in a bipartisan manner. Plus, let’s be honest–there is a racial element to this. White America wanted their country back though they may not have said it openly or to pollsters.
For as distasteful as some of us found New York Democrat Donald Trump’s behavior during the campaign, perhaps there is hope he can conduct himself as an adult not sitting on the Jerry Springer set or with Billy Bush on a bus.. Just acting like an adult would be a modest starting point. It’s unbelievable we’ve sunk this low as a country, but here we are.